Marie Byrd Land (MBL) is an unclaimed region of

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...

. With an area of , it is the largest unclaimed territory on Earth. It was named after the wife of American naval officer

Richard E. Byrd Richard Evelyn Byrd Jr. (October 25, 1888 – March 11, 1957) was an American naval officer, and pioneering aviator, polar explorer, and organizer of polar logistics. Aircraft flights in which he served as a navigator and expedition leader cr ...

, who explored the region in the early 20th century. The territory lies in

West Antarctica West Antarctica, or Lesser Antarctica, one of the two major regions of Antarctica, is the part of that continent that lies within the Western Hemisphere, and includes the Antarctic Peninsula. It is separated from East Antarctica by the Transan ...

, east of the

Ross Ice Shelf The Ross Ice Shelf is the largest ice shelf of Antarctica (, an area of roughly and about across: about the size of France). It is several hundred metres thick. The nearly vertical ice front to the open sea is more than long, and between high ...

and the

Ross Sea The Ross Sea is a deep bay of the Southern Ocean in Antarctica, between Victoria Land and Marie Byrd Land and within the Ross Embayment, and is the southernmost sea on Earth. It derives its name from the British explorer James Clark Ross who ...

and south of the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

portion of the Antarctic or Southern Ocean, extending eastward approximately to a line between the head of the

and

Eights Coast Eights Coast is a portion of the coast of West Antarctica, between Cape Waite and Pfrogner Point. To the west is the Walgreen Coast, and to the east is the Bryan Coast. It is part of Ellsworth Land and stretches between 103°24'W and 89°35'W ...

. It stretches between 158°W and 103°24'W. The inclusion of the area between the Rockefeller Plateau and Eights Coast is based upon Byrd's exploration.

Overview

Because of its remoteness, even by Antarctic standards, most of Marie Byrd Land (the portion east of 150°W) has not been

claimed "Claimed" is the eleventh episode of the The Walking Dead season 4, fourth season of the Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, post-apocalyptic Horror fiction, horror television series ''The Walking Dead (TV series), The Walking Dead'', wh ...

by any

sovereign state A sovereign state is a State (polity), state that has the highest authority over a territory. It is commonly understood that Sovereignty#Sovereignty and independence, a sovereign state is independent. When referring to a specific polity, the ter ...

. It is by far the largest single unclaimed territory on

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

, with an area of , including

, immediately east of Marie Byrd Land. In 1939, United States President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

instructed members of the

United States Antarctic Service Expedition The United States Antarctic Service Expedition (1939–1941), often referred to as Byrd's Third Antarctic Expedition, was an expedition jointly sponsored by the United States Navy, United States Department of State, State Department, United St ...

to take steps to claim some of Antarctica as

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

territory. Although this appears to have been done by members of this and subsequent expeditions, these do not appear to have been formalized prior to 1959, when the

Antarctic Treaty System The Antarctic Treaty and related agreements, collectively known as the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS), regulate international relations with respect to Antarctica, Earth's only continent without a native human population. It was the first arms ...

was set up. Some publications in the United States have shown this as a United States territory in the intervening period, and the

United States Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and superv ...

has stated that the United States has a solid basis for a claim in

resulting from its activities prior to 1959. The portion west of 150°W is part of

Ross Dependency The Ross Dependency is a region of Antarctica defined by a circular sector, sector originating at the South Pole, passing along longitudes 160th meridian east, 160° east to 150th meridian west, 150° west, and terminating at latitude 60th para ...

claimed by

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

. Five coastal areas are distinguished, which are listed from west to east:

Exploration

Marie Byrd Land was first explored from the west where it could be accessed from the Ross Sea. The far western coast of Marie Byrd Land was seen from the decks of

Robert Falcon Scott Captain Robert Falcon Scott (6 June 1868 – ) was a British Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the Discovery Expedition, ''Discovery'' expedition of 1901–04 and the Terra Nova Expedition ...

's ship ''Discovery'' in 1902. He named the peninsula adjacent to the Ross Sea

King Edward VII Land King Edward VII Land or King Edward VII Peninsula is a large, ice-covered peninsula which forms the northwestern extremity of Marie Byrd Land in Antarctica. The peninsula projects into the Ross Sea between Sulzberger Bay and the northeast corner ...

and the scattered outcrops that were within sight, the

Alexandra Mountains The Alexandra Mountains () are a group of low, separated mountains in the north portion of Edward VII Peninsula, just southwest of Sulzberger Bay in Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica. Discovery and name The Alexandra Mountains were discovered in Ja ...

. In 1911, during

Roald Amundsen Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen (, ; ; 16 July 1872 – ) was a Norwegians, Norwegian explorer of polar regions. He was a key figure of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. Born in Borge, Østfold, Norway, Am ...

's South Pole expedition, Kristian Prestrud led a sledge party that visited these isolated outcrops (

nunatak A nunatak (from Inuit language, Inuit ) is the summit or ridge of a mountain that protrudes from an ice field or glacier that otherwise covers most of the mountain or ridge. They often form natural pyramidal peaks. Isolated nunataks are also cal ...

s) in the region bordering the eastern Ross Sea and Ross Ice Shelf. At the same time the first Japanese Antarctic Expedition led by

Nobu Shirase was a Japanese army officer and explorer. He led the first Japanese Antarctic Expedition, 1910–12, which reached a southern latitude of 80°5′, and made the first landing on the coast of King Edward VII Land. Shirase had harboured polar am ...

landed a shore party on the peninsula.

Dean Smith Dean Edwards Smith (February 28, 1931 – February 7, 2015) was an American men's college basketball Coach (basketball), head coach. Called a "coaching legend" by the Basketball Hall of Fame, he coached for 36 years at the University of North C ...

was the pilot during aerial overflights in 1929 with Richard E. Byrd's first Antarctic expedition (1928–1930). It originated from Little America near Amundsen's original base camp ''

Framheim Framheim was the name of explorer Roald Amundsen's base at the Bay of Whales on the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica during his successful quest for the South Pole. It was used between January 1911 and February 1912. Cabin and tents The hut was co ...

'' in the Bay of Whales, led to the discovery of the

Rockefeller Mountains The Rockefeller Mountains () are a group of low-lying, scattered granite peaks and ridges, almost entirely snow-covered, standing south-southwest of the Alexandra Mountains on the Edward VII Peninsula of Antarctica. Location The Rockefeller ...

and the Edsel

Ford Ranges The Ford Ranges () are a collection of mountain groups and ranges standing east of Sulzberger Ice Shelf and Block Bay in the northwest part of Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica. Location The Ford Ranges lie along the coast of Marie Byrd Land to the s ...

farther to the east. Byrd named the region after his wife Marie. A geological party led by L. Gould briefly explored parts of the Rockefeller Mountains. The first deep overland exploration occurred during the second Byrd expedition (1933–1935) when a sledge party led by

Paul Siple Paul Allman Siple ( ; December 18, 1908 – November 25, 1968) was an American Antarctic explorer and geographer who took part in six Antarctic expeditions, including the two Byrd expeditions of 1928–1930 and 1933–1935, representing the Boy ...

and Franklin Alton Wade reached as far east as the

Fosdick Mountains The Fosdick Mountains () are an east–west trending mountain range with marked serrate outlines, standing along the south side of Balchen Glacier at the head of Block Bay, in the Ford Ranges of Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica. Location The Fos ...

in 1934. Aerial exploration discovered lands farther east along the

Ruppert Coast Ruppert Coast () is that portion of the coast of Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica, between Brennan Point and Cape Burks, or between Saunders Coast in the west and Hobbs Coast in the east. It stretches from 146°31'W to 136°50'W. It was named by R. ...

. The Third Byrd Antarctic Expedition, also called the

, took place from 1939 to 1941. This expedition established two base camps apart. West Base was near the former Little America base (68° 29' S, 163° 57' W) and East Base was near the

Antarctic Peninsula The Antarctic Peninsula, known as O'Higgins Land in Chile and Tierra de San Martin in Argentina, and originally as Graham Land in the United Kingdom and the Palmer Peninsula in the United States, is the northernmost part of mainland Antarctica. ...

Stonington Island Stonington Island is a rocky island lying northeast of Neny Island in the eastern part of Marguerite Bay off the west coast of Graham Land, Antarctica. It is long from north-west to south-east and wide, yielding an area of . It was formerl ...

(68° 12' S, 67° 3' W). Exploration flights out of these two bases led to the discovery of most of the

Marie Byrd Land Volcanic Province The Marie Byrd Land Volcanic Province is a volcanic field in northern Marie Byrd Land of West Antarctica, consisting of over 18 large shield volcanoes, 30 small volcanic centres and possibly many more centres buried under the West Antarc ...

(e.g.

Executive Committee Range The Executive Committee Range () is a range consisting of five major volcanoes, which trends north-south for along the 126th meridian west, in Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica. Location The Executive Committee Range is south of the eastern end of ...

) and much of the coastal region including the Walgreen, Hobbs, and Ruppert Coasts. During the expedition trail parties from West Base visited the northern Ford Ranges and south slopes of the Fosdick Mountains. The

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

mounted several expeditions to Antarctica in the period 1946 to 1959. These expeditions (

Operation Highjump Operation HIGHJUMP, officially titled The United States Navy Antarctic Developments Program, 1946–1947, (also called Task Force 68), was a United States Navy (USN) operation to establish the Antarctic research base Little America (exploration b ...

led by R. E. Byrd,

Windmill A windmill is a machine operated by the force of wind acting on vanes or sails to mill grain (gristmills), pump water, generate electricity, or drive other machinery. Windmills were used throughout the high medieval and early modern period ...

, and Deep Freeze I–IV) included aerial photography using the

Trimetrogon Trimetrogon is an aerial photographic survey method that involves the use of three cameras in one assembly. One camera is pointed directly downwards, and the other two are pointed to either side of the flight path at a 30° depression angle (60° ...

system of aerial photographs (TMA; vertical, left, and right oblique images over the same point) over portions of coastal Marie Byrd Land. The U.S. Navy began construction of

Byrd Station The Byrd Station is a former research station established by the United States during the International Geophysical Year by U.S. Navy Seabees during Operation Deep Freeze II in West Antarctica. It was a year-round base until 1972, and then se ...

at 80°S, 120°W with traverses out of Little America V in 1956–57 during Deep Freeze II. These efforts were in advance of the

International Geophysical Year The International Geophysical Year (IGY; ), also referred to as the third International Polar Year, was an international scientific project that lasted from 1 July 1957 to 31 December 1958. It marked the end of a long period during the Cold War w ...

(IGY; from July 1957 to end of 1958) that saw several exploratory overland traverses with tractor trains (

Sno-cat The Tucker Sno-Cat is a family of tracked vehicles for snow conditions, manufactured in Medford, Oregon by the company of the same name. Different models have been used for expeditions in the Arctic and the Antarctic during the second half of ...

s and modified

bulldozer A bulldozer or dozer (also called a crawler) is a large tractor equipped with a metal #Blade, blade at the front for pushing material (soil, sand, snow, rubble, or rock) during construction work. It travels most commonly on continuous tracks, ...

s). Starting in January 1957 (pre-IGY)

Charles R. Bentley Charles Raymond Bentley (December 23, 1929 – August 19, 2017) was an American glaciologist and geophysicist, born in Rochester, New York. He was a professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Mount Bentley and the Bentley Su ...

led a traverse from Little America V to the new Byrd station along the route blazed by

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

engineers a few months before (the Army-Navy Drive). His team conducted measurements of ice thickness and of the Earth's magnetic and gravity field. The following summer season (1957–58) he led a second traverse out of Byrd Station that visited volcanoes of the Marie Byrd Land Volcanic Province for the first time. The traverse reached the Sentinel Mountains beyond eastern Marie Byrd Land before returning to Byrd Station. Bentley led a third traverse out of Byrd Station to the

Horlick Mountains The Horlick Mountains () are a mountain group in the Transantarctic Mountains of Antarctica, lying eastward of Reedy Glacier and including the Wisconsin Range, Long Hills and Ohio Range. Discovery and naming The mountains were discovered in ...

in 1958–59. These three traverses led to the discovery of the

Bentley Subglacial Trench The Bentley Subglacial Trench is a vast topographic trench in Marie Byrd Land, West Antarctica, 80°S, 115°W. At 2,555 meters (8,382 ft) below sea level, it (along with the deepest points within the adjacent Byrd Subglacial Basin) is am ...

or Trough, a deep bedrock chasm between MBL and the Transantarctic Mountains of East Antarctica. During 1958–1960 TMA flights and a traverse out of Byrd Station visited and mapped the Executive Committee Range. TMA were flown in western Marie Byrd Land in 1964 and 1965. Following these efforts the

United States Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geography, geology, and hydrology. The agency was founded on Mar ...

(USGS) mounted land surveys to establish a series of reference points and benchmarks throughout much of Marie Byrd Land during 1966–1968. explored the parts of the Walgreen Coast and Eights Coast in 1960–61. It had parties of geologists and surveyors along that were deployed to outcrops on land. This expedition to the far eastern reaches of Marie Byrd Land determined that Thurston Peninsula as proposed by earlier expeditions was in fact an island (

Thurston Island Thurston Island () is a largely ice-covered, glacially dissected island, long and wide, lying between Amundsen Sea and Bellingshausen Sea a short way off the northwest end of Ellsworth Land, Antarctica. The island is separated from the mainlan ...

). In the same season a geological party led by Campbell Craddock explored the

Jones Mountains The Jones Mountains () are an isolated group of mountains, trending generally east–west for , situated on the Eights Coast, Ellsworth Land, Antarctica, about south of Dustin Island. Location The Jones Mountains lie to the south of the Eigh ...

in the adjacent region. The United States Byrd Coastal Survey during 1966–1969, led by F. A. Wade, conducted geologic mapping of the Alexandra and Rockefeller Mountains and the Ford Ranges and produced a series of 1:250,000 geologic maps of the region.e.g. Wade, F. A., et al. (1977). "Reconnaissance geologic map of the Alexandra Mountains quadrangle, Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica, Map A-5". Reston, Virginia: U. S. Antarctic Research Program. This was a complex expedition involving remote helicopter camps and airborne geophysics. Several geological expeditions explored Marie Byrd Land during the period 1978–1993. New Zealand geologists surveyed the Ford Ranges and Edward VII Peninsula in two expeditions, 1978–79 and 1987–88. Exploration of the Marie Byrd Land Volcanic Province began in earnest by U.S. geologists in 1984–85. The WAVE project (West Antarctic Volcano Exploration) focused on the volcanic province during the period 1989–1991. The SPRITE project (South Pacific Rim International Tectonic Expedition) explored regions and surroundings of the Hobbs Coast in 1990–1993. Members of both projects were from the U.S., Britain, and New Zealand. During the Austral summers of 1989–1990 and 1990–1991, a geological party from the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Tracing its roots back to 1891 as an ...

(UCSB) explored several of the mountain ranges within the northern Ford Ranges of Marie Byrd Land (FORCE expedition; Ford Ranges Crustal Exploration). GANOVEX VII a multinational expedition led by Germany visited Edward VII Peninsula in 1992–93.

Colorado College Colorado College is a private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Founded in 1874 by Thomas Nelson Haskell in his daughter's memory, the college offers over 40 majors a ...

geologists led expeditions to the Ford Ranges in 1998–2001 (Ford Ranges), 2005–2007 and 2011–2013 (Fosdick Mountains).

Research camps and stations

Marie Byrd Land hosted the

Operation Deep Freeze Operation Deep Freeze is the code name for a series of United States missions to Antarctica, beginning with "Operation Deep Freeze I" in 1955–56, followed by "Operation Deep Freeze II", "Operation Deep Freeze III", and so on. (There was an init ...

base

(NBY; originally at 80°S, 120°W, rebuilt at 80°S, 119°W), beginning in 1957, in the hinterland of

Bakutis Coast The Getz Ice Shelf () is an ice shelf over long and from wide, bordering the Hobbs Coast and Bakutis Coast of Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica, between the McDonald Heights and Martin Peninsula. Several large islands are partially or wholly embedded ...

. Byrd Station was the only major base in the interior of West Antarctica for many years. In 1968, the first

ice core An ice core is a core sample that is typically removed from an ice sheet or a high mountain glacier A glacier (; or ) is a persistent body of dense ice, a form of rock, that is constantly moving downhill under its own weight. A glacier ...

to fully penetrate the Antarctic Ice Sheet was drilled here. The year-round station was abandoned in 1972, and after operating for years as a temporary summer encampment, Byrd Surface Camp, Byrd Station was reopened by the

United States Antarctic Program The United States Antarctic Program (or USAP; formerly known as the United States Antarctic Research Program or USARP and the United States Antarctic Service or USAS) is an organization of the United States government which has a presence in the ...

(USAP) in 2009–2010 to support operations in northern West Antarctica. On

of Marie Byrd Land is the Russian station Russkaya, which was occupied 1980–1990 and is now closed. East of the Siple Coast off the Ross Ice Shelf,

Siple Dome Siple Dome () is an ice dome approximately 100 km wide and 100 km long, located 130 km east of Siple Coast in Antarctica. Charles Bentley and Robert Thomas established a "strain rosette" on this feature to determine ice movement in ...

was established as a summer science camp in 1996. Ice cores have been drilled here to retrieve the climate history of the last 100,000 years. This camp also served as a base for airborne geophysical surveys supported by the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics (UTIG).e.g., In 1998–1999, a camp was operated at the Ford Ranges (FRD) in western Marie Byrd Land, supporting a part of a United States Antarctic Program (USAP) airborne survey initiated by UCSB and supported by the UTIG flying out of Siple Dome. In 2004–05, a large camp, Thwaites (THW) was established by the USAP north of NBY, in order to support a large airborne geophysical survey of eastern Marie Byrd Land by the UTIG. In 2006, a major encampment,

WAIS Divide The WAIS Divide is the ice flow divide on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) which is a linear boundary that separates the region where the ice flows to the Ross Sea, from the region where the ice flows to the Weddell Sea. It is similar to a con ...

(WSD) was established on the divide between the

Embayment A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

and the

Amundsen Sea The Amundsen Sea is an arm of the Southern Ocean off Marie Byrd Land in western Antarctica. It lies between Cape Flying Fish (the northwestern tip of Thurston Island) to the east and Cape Dart on Siple Island to the west. Cape Flying Fish ...

Embayment, in the easternmost portion of Marie Byrd Land, in order to drill a high resolution

. Drilling and coring ended in 2014. In 2018, the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration commenced with a large and ongoing physical presence onshore of the Amundsen Sea. It entails marine, airborne, and on-ice geophysical exploration that will illuminate the character of Marie Byrd Land bedrock geology and the nature of the eastern boundary of the province. The goal is determining the stability of the glacier and prediction of global sea level rise from shrinking of the WAIS.

Geography and geology

Adjacent to the continent, Marie Byrd Land is bordered by the

in the east and the

and

in the west. Mountain ranges are prominent along and near the coastline with a few exceptions. Marie Byrd Land is covered by the vast

West Antarctic Ice Sheet The West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) is the segment of the Antarctic ice sheet, continental ice sheet that covers West Antarctica, the portion of Antarctica on the side of the Transantarctic Mountains that lies in the Western Hemisphere. It is cla ...

(WAIS). The WAIS in Marie Byrd Land drains off the continent to the east into the Ross Ice Shelf via seven ice streams. Along the coast of the Southern Ocean and the Amundsen Sea, ice drains via glaciers, the major one being the Thwaites. West Antarctica and Marie Byrd Land have elevations of up to 1.5 to 2 kilometers on the surface of the WAIS. In contrast,

East Antarctica East Antarctica, also called Greater Antarctica, constitutes the majority (two-thirds) of the Antarctic continent, lying primarily in the Eastern Hemisphere south of the Indian Ocean, and separated from West Antarctica by the Transantarctic ...

has interior elevations on its ice sheet of over 4 kilometers. The

West Antarctic Rift System The West Antarctic Rift System is a series of rift valleys between East and West Antarctica. It encompasses the Ross Embayment, the Ross Sea, the area under the Ross Ice Shelf and a part of Marie Byrd Land in West Antarctica, reaching to th ...

(WARS) that evolved over the last hundred million years, includes all or part of Marie Byrd Land. The WARS extends from the Ross Sea

continental shelf A continental shelf is a portion of a continent that is submerged under an area of relatively shallow water, known as a shelf sea. Much of these shelves were exposed by drops in sea level during glacial periods. The shelf surrounding an islan ...

east into Marie Byrd Land. The ice streams and glaciers that drain the WAIS have been proposed to follow rift valleys, now buried by ice, which formed in the WARS. The WARS contains a volcanic province with volcanoes active from the

Eocene The Eocene ( ) is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (Ma). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes ...

epoch to a few thousand years ago. A

mantle plume A mantle plume is a proposed mechanism of convection within the Earth's mantle, hypothesized to explain anomalous volcanism. Because the plume head partially melts on reaching shallow depths, a plume is often invoked as the cause of volcanic ho ...

was discovered deep below Marie Byrd Land. Heat from the plume has been proposed responsible for uplift of a significant portion of West Antarctica to form the Marie Byrd Land Dome. A digital map of Antarctica includes the geology of Marie Byrd Land. The geologic history of Marie Byrd Land in West Antarctica was summarized in a 2020 publication.

Glaciers, ice streams, and ice shelves

Prominent glaciers that drain the WAIS in MBL include the Thwaites, and also the

Pine Island Glacier Pine Island Glacier (PIG) is a large ice stream, and the fastest melting glacier in Antarctica. responsible for about 13% of Antarctica's ice loss. The glacier flows west-northwest along the south side of the Hudson Mountains into Pine Island B ...

, both of which empty into the Amundsen Sea. Of the seven ice streams that drain into the Ross Ice Shelf, the Bindschadler and Whillans ice streams are the most extensive. The seven ice streams discharge 40 percent of the WAIS. Besides the Ross Ice Shelf, significant ice shelves on the coast of the Southern Ocean include the Sulzberger, and

Nickerson Nickerson may refer to: People * Nickerson (surname) Fictional characters *Coach Burt Nickerson, a character in the movie '' All the Right Moves'' played by Craig T. Nelson *Marty Nickerson, the main character, a fictional attorney, in the four ...

Mountain ranges, peaks, summits, and sub-ice topography

Due to the burial of the continental basement of MBL by the WAIS, mountain ranges are exposed towards the coast of MBL where ice thickness is smaller. Prominent ranges include the Ford Ranges in western MBL, The

Flood Range The Flood Range () is a range of large snow-covered mountains extending in an east–west direction for about and forming a right angle with the southern end of the Ames Range in Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica. Location The Flood Range is south ...

, the Executive Committee Range, and the

Kohler Range Kohler Range () is a mountain range in Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica. The range is about long and stands between the base of Martin Peninsula and Smith Glacier. The range consists of two ice-covered plateaus punctuated by several rock peaks and ...

. The Ford Ranges are the most extensive and include more than six individual named mountain groups. The Executive Committee Range includes five volcanoes, some proposed to be dormant or active. The Flood Range comprises a linear chain of

Neogene The Neogene ( ,) is a geologic period and system that spans 20.45 million years from the end of the Paleogene Period million years ago ( Mya) to the beginning of the present Quaternary Period million years ago. It is the second period of th ...

and

Quaternary The Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS), as well as the current and most recent of the twelve periods of the ...

age volcanoes. The Fosdick mountains in the northern Ford Ranges are a 30-kilometer-long span of

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 143.1 to 66 mya (unit), million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era (geology), Era, as well as the longest. At around 77.1 million years, it is the ...

metamorphic Metamorphic rocks arise from the transformation of existing rock to new types of rock in a process called metamorphism. The original rock (protolith) is subjected to temperatures greater than and, often, elevated pressure of or more, causi ...

rocks. Most other exposed rock in MBL is

Paleozoic The Paleozoic ( , , ; or Palaeozoic) Era is the first of three Era (geology), geological eras of the Phanerozoic Eon. Beginning 538.8 million years ago (Ma), it succeeds the Neoproterozoic (the last era of the Proterozoic Eon) and ends 251.9 Ma a ...

metamorphosed

sedimentary rock Sedimentary rocks are types of rock (geology), rock formed by the cementation (geology), cementation of sediments—i.e. particles made of minerals (geological detritus) or organic matter (biological detritus)—that have been accumulated or de ...

and

granitoid A granitoid is a broad term referring to a diverse group of coarse-grained igneous rocks that are widely distributed across the globe, covering a significant portion of the Earth's exposed surface and constituting a large part of the continental ...

, and

Mesozoic The Mesozoic Era is the Era (geology), era of Earth's Geologic time scale, geological history, lasting from about , comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous Period (geology), Periods. It is characterized by the dominance of archosaurian r ...

granitoid. Away from the coasts, the WAIS buries individual mountains and ranges that are not named, the exception being major features such as the Bentley Subglacial Trench. Marie Byrd Seamount () is a

seamount A seamount is a large submarine landform that rises from the ocean floor without reaching the water surface (sea level), and thus is not an island, islet, or cliff-rock. Seamounts are typically formed from extinct volcanoes that rise abruptly a ...

named in association with Marie Byrd Land; name approved June 1988 (

Advisory Committee on Undersea Features Advisory may refer to: * Advisory board, a body that provides advice to the management of a corporation, organization, or foundation * Boil-water advisory, a public health directive given by government to consumers when a community's drinking wate ...

, 228).

Mountain peaks and summits

Not comprehensive.

In popular culture

*Marie Byrd Land is the setting for Kelvinator Station in

Michael Chabon Michael Chabon ( ; born May 24, 1963) is an American novelist, screenwriter, columnist, and short story writer. Born in Washington, D.C., he spent a year studying at Carnegie Mellon University before transferring to the University of Pittsburgh, ...

's 2001 Pulitzer Prize winning novel ''

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay ''The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay'' is a 2000 novel by American author Michael Chabon. A historical fiction novel, it follows the lives of two Jewish cousins, Josef "Joe" Kavalier, a Czech artist and magician who escapes Nazi-occupied ...

''. *Marie Byrd Land is the location of the southern outpost of Brakebills Academy in

Lev Grossman Lev Grossman (born June 26, 1969) is an American novelist and journalist who wrote ''The Magicians Trilogy'': '' The Magicians'' (2009), '' The Magician King'' (2011), and '' The Magician's Land'' (2014). He was the book critic and lead technolo ...

's 2009 novel '' The Magicians''. Byrd Station was the template for the doomed Antarctic bases in: *The John Carpenter horror movie '' The Thing'' (1982) *

James Rollins James Paul Czajkowski (born August 20, 1961), better known by his pen name of James Rollins, is an American veterinarian and writer of action-adventure/ thriller, mystery, and techno-thriller novels who gave up his veterinary practice in Sacra ...

' tenth Sigma Force novel ''The 6th Extinction'' (2014).

References

External links

Bruce Luyendyk: Mighty Bad Land
Antarctica and climate change blog * Suite of projects under the Thwaites organization * Airborne investigations of Ross Sea continental margin and geology of the west edge of Marie Byrd Land {{Authority control West Antarctica Regions of Antarctica Lands of Antarctica Marie Byrd Land explorers and scientists Terrae nullius